Watchers

We've all seen them, perched on high wires or rooftops, staring at the world below. Crows congregate in small groups, and when one departs the murder, another quickly takes its place. Have you ever asked yourself what they are looking for and who they are reporting their observations to?

After the apocalypse, the World Collective, a new planetary governing body, was determined to never allow events that caused the destruction of society to raise its ugly head again. The governing body decided that, if left unsupervised, people would revert to the same ideologies they embraced before the collapse. The old ways had to remain buried forever. It was out of fear of regression that the Department of Watchers was formed.

The Watchers Charter instructed them to observe, but not interfere with, peoples' everyday lives. They were required to be as inconspicuous as possible while gathering information. If a particular group of people were observed taking part in seditious activities like religion, the formation of political parties, racial exclusion, or tribal rituals, the information would be forwarded to the central government for further review.

In its infancy, the agency used devices like traffic and security cameras, social media posts, and human observations to keep tabs on the world's citizens, but as the population replenished itself, those methods became woefully inadequate. A new method of gathering information was needed before the world sunk back into its old ways.

During the rebirth of global society, science and technology became the guiding light of human development. It was because of this renewed interest in science and our planet that in-depth research into animals and how they communicate came about. Technology became so advanced that simply by mixing a microchip into animal food, scientists could see through the subject's eyes and hear through their ears. Use of this technology on humans was banned by law, but animal spies is exactly what the Watchers were looking for.

Simple trial and error taught the agency that dogs, birds, rodents, even larger insects like dragonflies were the most compliant subjects. Cats, snakes, and most other reptiles were poor hosts and blocked the ingested electronic devices. With man's best friend, and flocks of eyes in the sky working as agents, the Watchers job became much easier.

John was on his way home from his factory job in a town that was once part of an area referred to as the rust belt. Before the Apocalypse, he had a promising career as an up-and-coming politician. Now he worked on an assembly line helping to build wind turbines. He hated his job, his town, and everything it had become. John longed for the days when coal was king and he received cash to help keep it that way.

He scanned the sky and noticed four crows perched on an obsolete utility pole. He took out a piece of gum, tossed the wrapper on the ground, and put the gum in his mouth. One bird flew off, but was quickly replaced by another. John's focus wasn't on some dumb pollution ordinance, it was on the meeting he would attend that evening. Others in attendance would include a former priest, now working as a hospital orderly, a former oil company executive, now driving an electric city bus, several ex-politicians working at manual labor jobs, and the group's founder, a former evangelical preacher now working as a grocery store clerk.

John opened his front door and was immediately greeted by his overly affectionate German Shepherd. He gave the dog a scratch behind the ears and headed upstairs to change. Twenty minutes later, John was heading out the door with his trusty friend by his side. If anyone was watching, it looked like a man taking his dog out for an evening walk.

The conspirators met that evening in what had once been a local bank. Money was no longer needed, so neither were banks, but the buildings remained. Each attendee brought a dog, giving their gathering the appearance of a meeting of the local kennel club. Immediately, the men got down to business. They felt sure most people wanted the old way of life restored and were in the middle of devising a way to make that happen when the door burst open and government forces moved in.

The local paper reported the evenings raid. The article said the men would be taken to a local re-education center. The dogs would be given new homes.